The Hollywood Brown Derby is an upscale restaurant located in Disney’s Hollywood Studios Park. This restaurant is a replica of the famous “Brown Derby” restaurant, which was a popular restaurant in with Hollywood movie stars in the late 1920’s. The original Brown Derby claims to have invented the cobb salad.

My mom and I came here for a nice lunch while we were in the theme park. This is a restaurant I have always wanted to try in Disney World, so I was excited that I was finally able to come here.

We shared a margarita trio ($11), which came with a lime, a mango, and pomegranate margarita. The mango was my favourite because of its pure mango flavour and sugar rimmed glass. The pomegranate was sweet and tangy and the lime one was tart with the classic salt rime. I enjoyed all of these and the little stand it comes in was cute.

For my lunch I had two appetizers. The first was the blue lump crab spring rolls served on a bed of Asian slaw ($13). The spring rolls were crispy with a sweet crab flavour. They were generous with the crab inside and it definitely stood out flavour wise.

The snow crab claw was a great bonus. It had a beautiful chunk of fresh crab meat with no cracking and digging required.

The spicy miso aioli wasn’t actually spicy, but I enjoyed it. It was a good dip for the spring rolls.

I had to try an appetizer size cobb salad ($8) since that is what they specialize in. It was made with finely chopped greens, turkey breast, bacon, egg, tomatoes, blue cheese, chives, and cobb dressing.

I’ve never actually had a real cobb salad where they chop up all of the greens, but I really enjoyed it. It was so easy to mix everything up and get a bit of all the flavours. Plus you won’t ever have a problem stuffing oversized lettuce leaves in your mouth with this.

The one flavour that really stood out was the blue cheese, because it is a strong cheese, but it wasn’t too much and the portion size was just right.

This was a great and satisfying salad and I can see why it is so popular.

My mom ordered the sterling silver pork chop ($33) that comes topped with a melted smoked gouda and heirloom apple slaw. Pork chops are one of my least favourite cuts of pork, but it was well executed here. The pork was still moist on the inside and not overcooked.

The pork was served on a bed of potato hash with bacon, Napa cabbage, sweet peppers, and cider jus. The potato hash was excellent. This was like a very fancy and delicious version of shredded hash browns. The potatoes and the cabbage had a crispy texture and the smokey bacon flavour really came out. The cider jus added some tang to the dish and a good broth to soak everything in.

For dessert we shared a slice of grapefruit cake ($7), which is Brown Derby’s signature dessert. The cake is made with layers of yellow cake and fresh grapefruit cream cheese icing.

The yellow cake was delicate and moist. The grapefruit cream cheese icing was amazing. I’m not the biggest grapefruit fan, so I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this. It wasn’t too tart or sour and it wasn’t too sweet or rich. The flavour was balanced and had a smooth texture.

My Mom and I had a great lunch here and enjoyed the experience. It is the only nice restaurant in Hollywood Studios and if you are willing to spend the money, it is definitely worth a visit. The food is well prepared and a far stretch from all of the other greasy food in the park.